Life started in the ocean and will end in the oceans. Marine life is crucial for the existence of life on Earth, as it makes our atmosphere and regulates the climate. Climate change is often attributed solely to carbon dioxide and the burning of fossil fuels, but it is part of a much more complex system.
Unlike the terrestrial ecosystem, which is visualised as a pyramid with predators at the top, the marine ecosystem is an inverted pyramid with a much smaller mass of plants supporting more animals.
60% of marine life is under 1 mm in size, and most plants are smaller than 1/20th of a mm (50 microns). They can double in mass every 15 minutes to a few days. This means you don’t need a large mass of plants to support a much larger mass of animals. This works, and the life support system for the planet is maintained as long as the plants are allowed to grow; unfortunately, this is changing rapidly.
https://lnkd.in/easy6iPt over the last 20 years, 56% of the oceans have become greener; Earth will soon be the green planet, not the blue planet.
Why does this matter?
The green colour is due to a different type of phytoplankton (plants) that are not a good food source for the animals and can also make the water toxic. If the water becomes toxic, the air also becomes toxic. All plants live in the top 200 m of the ocean, with a higher percentage at the surface.
All thermal plastic pollution, such as polythene and styrene, ends up as microplastic floating in the top few mm of the surface. When fossil fuels and trees are burnt, the soot ends up on the surface. When toxic forever chemicals made from oil are dumped with wastewater, they also float on the surface and get absorbed by the plastic and partially combusted carbon soot. The solution to pollution is not dillution, because this toxic waste scum concentrates on the surface and is killing the base of the food chain. For every kg of plants destroyed, 10 kg to 100 kg of animals starve
The green plants do not produce oils such as Omega 3, which means the oil/surfactant film or skin on the oceans is disappearing. This film, called the SML; regulates clouds, temperature, humidity, and winds; indeed, it regulates the climate. In a few more years, the SML will be destroyed, along with any possibility to regulate the climate
We need to stop toxic chemical, plastic, and partially combusted carbon pollution now. Along with ocean acidification, nothing else really matters
https://lnkd.in/ev6_2cXN
Note: The slide below is the contents of 100 ml of surface seawater 50 km offshore from the Canary Islands. Plastic particles have been circled. Many of the black particles are soot. Scale is 5 mm, smallest visible particle is 20 microns. There will be maybe a thousand times more particles, sub-1 micron particles, which are even more destructive than the visible particles
5000 data points collected in the Atlantic Ocean and around the globe by www.Goesfoundation.com
